50 Shades of Gray

By Tambre Herndon
www.hishighercalling.com

We all know the prayer that Jesus taught us in which we pray “Lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil”. We live now in a world that only recognizes evil on a Hollywood movie screen. Movie goers thrill to see heroes doing battle with supernatural villains intent upon destroying mankind. We find momentary inspiration in stories of hope that endures and overcomes devastating hardship. Then we as a people, walk out of the theatre into a world that does not accept the existence of evil. It is not just our society but a view that is accepted worldwide.

There is no longer a black and white of good and evil. There are no longer any lines which cannot be crossed by a decent society. The moral and spiritual compass of mankind has now been defined entirely by “political correctness”. We have been conditioned to give up our ability to determine what is right and what is wrong. Any attempt to identify evil or wrongdoing is attacked as judgmental or bigoted. We must not offend anyone no matter what the cost. Therefore tolerance is forced upon the individual until complete submission is achieved and accepted as a way of life. Instead of black and white we truly live in a world with 50 shades of gray.

This has led our world in the direction of anarchy in which there is no stopping a group of terrorists who kidnap, rape and kill 300 young girls in Africa. There is no stopping a mindset that is capable of mutilating and crucifying children or burning a man alive on video for the world to witness. Yet even facing such horror we cannot label such actions as evil. In our society we have seen a total role reversal from respect for institutions that protect and provide for our wellbeing, to their being viewed as the enemy. Christians have been effectively silenced in public. Finally, the most anticipated movie this year is about sexual deviancy, abuse and the degradation of women. All the while it is being promoted as an exciting, sexually liberating story to which millions of women aspire presented for our entertainment. How sad.

No wrong. No right. No evil.

I am a firm believer that there is not one single word uttered from the mouth of Jesus that is not significant all by itself. Jesus did not teach us to pray “Our father help us to do good deeds”. He did not teach us to pray “help us to be nice people” or “help us to not offend”. Jesus spoke the word “evil”. He identified “evil” as something real, something relevant. It was real enough and relevant enough that he taught everyone who came to Him to pray for Gods divine deliverance from it.

As Jesus taught us, we must pray to be led out of the gray fog of temptation. The temptation to succumb to a world with no definition of right and wrong is strong. The evil in the world cannot possibly be resisted if it cannot even be identified.

We must remove the veil from our eyes and recognize that although the characters and the means may be different, the evil represented on screen is all around us. We MUST hold on to the Light. We MUST hold on to the blessed Hope. We MUST absorb His truth for He is the only way, the only truth and the only light in a world that is 50 currently shades of gray.